Suspension school · Tuning by Riding Style

Jumps and Flow Trails

Pop without buck: progression up, rear rebound calmed, pressures nudged

Flow trails and jump lines invert the usual priorities. The surface is smooth, so bump absorption barely matters. What matters is how the bike loads and releases energy through lips, berms and rollers. You are tuning for pop and predictability, and on a 20 to 27kg bike, predictability mostly means controlling what the rear shock does at the top of a lip.

Pop Versus Plough

A plush, open setup ploughs. It absorbs the trail, including the parts you wanted to pump and jump off. A supportive, progressive setup gives energy back. On jump trails you want the second bike, and the good news is that a smooth surface hides the harshness this would cause in the rough.

• Sag: the firm end, 15 to 17% fork and 25 to 27% shock
• Volume spacers: add one, progression is what lets you push hard into a lip without blowing through
• Low-speed compression: two clicks firmer, this is the support you pump against
• Tyres: add 1 to 2psi, smooth surfaces reward rolling speed and berms load the casing hard
• Rebound: slightly slower at the rear, covered below, because it is the setting that matters most here

Rebound and the Buck

The classic jump-trail fault is the buck. The rear suspension compresses into the lip, then extends too quickly as you leave it, kicking the back of the bike upward and pitching you nose-down. An eMTB stores more energy in its spring than a light bike at the same sag, so a rebound setting that felt fine unpowered can buck noticeably once there is a motor and battery on board.

• Nose drops in the air, or the rear kicks up off the lip: slow the rear rebound one click and retest
• Bike leaves the lip dead, with no pop, and lands rear-heavy: rebound has gone too slow, come back a click
• The bars feel late or the front lifts unevenly: front and rear are mismatched, adjust one end at a time and keep the front no slower than the rear
• Change nothing by more than one click between attempts, jump timing adapts to the bike and big swings are how people get hurt

The eMTB Advantage in the Air

The extra mass genuinely helps here. A 24kg bike is stable in the air, holds its line through berm trains and carries speed through rollers with less effort. The price is paid on landings: more mass means deeper travel use when you come up short, which is why the added spacer is not optional on an eMTB jump setup, and why a cased landing that an unpowered bike shrugs off can send an eMTB shock to the bumper.

Casings, Pressures and When to Switch

Flow trails do not demand more than your usual trail casing, EXO+ or Super Trail territory, because the surface is kind. If you feel the rear tyre folding in heavily loaded berms, take the extra 1psi first, and only step up to a DoubleDown or Super Gravity class casing if the squirm persists.

Keep this as a second tune, not your everyday one. Firm sag, extra progression and slowed rebound are the wrong answers on rooty natural trails, where the same settings that pump beautifully will hammer your hands and break traction. Save it, name it, and switch when you are heading to the jumps.